[Update] IIT Candidate Creates Product Listing Resume To Get A Job In Flipkart; Is Rejected

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” – Ella Fitzgerald

Grabbing the attention of your potential employer is the most treacherous task for the unemployed. And when that unemployed is a creative marketer, who has also published a romantic novel, then things get interesting.

Akash Neeraj Mittal, an IITian who has published a novel called ‘It Wasnt Her Fault’ decided to use his creativity to land a job at Flipkart. The unique way in which he literally sold himself on their ecommerce portal he tried to market itself was quite creative, and out of the box.

But unfortunately, HR department of Flipkart wasn’t amused and he was rejected.

What Akash Did?

During an interview, the candidate usually sells his skills, experience and vision in-front of the interviewer in order to get the job. However, using his imagination, Akash decided to sell himself on Flipkart.com, created his resume that mimicked a product listing page on Flipkart, in order to get the attention of the management.

Just like a product listing, he create his own listing, added his own image, ‘product features’; ‘customer reviews’ and a ‘price’ of Rs 27,60,200.

In that unique resume, he said, “When you are a 6-pointer and competing with best of the best minds of the country, you know how hard it is to land a job. You start doing some crazy and random stuff to stand out from the crowd. This is my resume for Flipkart’s APM Profile. I didn’t get an interview call though, but I hope it will bring a smile on someone’s face.”

Interestingly, IIT Kharagpur, from where he completed his IIT was listed as the ‘seller’.

Soon, his unique way of applying for a job was picked up by bloggers, and then mainstream media and he was soon all over the web.

On some level, it was inspired by the dare-devil of Nina Mufleh from San Francisco, who created a resume to impress AirBNB. With Nina, AirBNB was indeed impressed, and she was asked for an interview.

But Flipkart Wasn’t Impressed

It seems Flipkart wasn’t amused with this dare devil act of Akash, and they rejected the application by deleting his listing. There can be several reasons for the same:

Rs 27 lakh for Product Manager was way too much for Flipkart

They are not hiring IIT passouts with GPA of 6

Flipkart thought that hiring this candidate can set precedence, and things can get out of hand

Flipkart doesn’t appreciate creativity

There are various other possibilities as well.

Let us inform Akash that although Flipkart couldn’t identify the creativity; we did. And it was one of the best. We wish him all the best for future.

Updated: We have updated the story. The story mentioned he created a product listing page on Flipkart, but it seems it was his resume that mimicked the Flipkart product listing page

"[Update] IIT Candidate Creates Product Listing Resume To Get A Job In Flipkart; Is Rejected", 2 out of 5 based on 14 ratings.

Mohul keenly observes the nuances of Indian startup world; and tries to demystify the secrets behind Technology, Marketing, Mobile and Internet. He is a Writer by passion, Marketer by choice and Entrepreneur by compulsion. Follow him on Twitter here: @_mohul